this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2023
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Oh wow, I went and looked up the MacBook Air, it looks like you could snap it being so thin. I'll have to keep an eye out for one of those at the junk stores, I've not disassembled a laptop nearly that thin yet. Personally, I'd probably just end up taping a battery to the bottom of that if it came to it. Most of the laptops I've got are at least an inch thick, so it's generally not a problem finding some space in them.
I recently picked up a T430, which turns out is an absolutely awful crapshoot with third party batteries that may just not charge thanks to Lenovo, or that just might stop holding any charge after a few cycles, or at worst manage to catch fire. Lenovo no longer sells new OEM batteries for these older machines, and as they get even older, finding new third party batteries will only become more difficult.
I think I might have left my thoughts a bit unfinished in my original comment. I think where I was trying to go with my issue with laptops being included in here is that requiring the batteries to be easily detachable won't stop manufacturers from trying to lock you into something evil, something along the lines of a battery subscription like it's printer ink. If anything it may encourage them to, and that's a scary thought. What happens when they stop producing batteries for your locked down hardware? Can't use "non-genuine" batteries, they won't be allowed to charge. The average user is likely just going to toss it and buy another one, creating more e-waste.
What I feel should be regulated is the interchangeability of parts like batteries, similarly to how USB-C has been enforced. Innovation is great, but proprietary major components that are destined to fail prematurely to the rest of the device from normal wear and tear don't benefit repairability, even if they are easily replaceable. Eventually that part will no longer be manufactured, and a consumable part that no-one else is allowed to sell to your users encourages you as the OEM to design that part to have a mean time to failure that's as short as possible.
Sorry if this reads a bit disheveled, I wrote it kind of sporadically.